Tag: Windows 7

Windows 7: XP Mode

Windows 7
Windows 7

Time for a geeky post – it’s been a while. I was tinkering with the beta version of Windows 7 for a while before it expired and was… well, I’d not say “impressed”, as it had problems with basic graphic drivers on my Acer TravelMate 2410. Otherwise it looked like it had the nice stuff from Vista without running like a two legged dog that’s been shot in the back of the head, then buried in concrete. As Vista does.

One feature I couldn’t check out is the XP Mode, which uses the virtualisation (I’m Anglicising that) of a copy of XP SP3 because my PC won’t support it. The idea is that anything you can run on XP should run on 7 using this feature… as long as your PC is beefy enough to handle it. The thing is, it’s not just beef – it’s functionality of your processor that actually comes into it.

The core requirements for XP Mode to run are:

  • Minimum 2GB RAM
  • Chip-level virtualisation in your CPU

Do you know if your CPU supports chip-level virtualisation? No, neither do I. I’d assume anything made in the last 6 months or so has a good chance of doing so but there’s no guarantee. Thankfully, Intel and AMD both supply free downloads that will give you a ton of information on the magic box within your PC including whether or not you have this level of functionality:

Download the relevant one and run it. You’re looking for confirmation that you have some kind of virtualization (American spelling, ick) technology. If you don’t have it, then you won’t be running XP under Windows 7 without upgrading your PC – and possibly having to get a new Windows 7 license if it works like the old XP ones did!

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Windows 7 Release Candidate

Windows 7
Windows 7

Well the Windows 7 Release Candidate is available for download. For free. If you want it, it’s a 2.3Gb DVD ISO file and available from this link to the download information page. You’ll need a Microsoft Live ID of some description, if you don’t already have one. Your free license key is linked to this ID so if you lose the key, it’s easy to get it back again.

Note that though it’s a DVD image, it is possible to install it using a USB stick should you not be able to use DVDs for some reason.

As my copy trickles down at a meg a second (!), I’m sat waiting for some kit I ordered yesterday – a 160Gb internal IDE hard drive for my laptop and an external drive enclosure into which I’ll put the soon-to-be-replaced 120Gb drive I’m taking out. Sadly it looks like 160Gb is the largest drive I can get for my laptop due to IDE/ATA being superceded by SATA drives.

Still, the extra 40Gb will be enough space for another partition big enough for Win7 testing. Yes I know I don’t like Microsoft as such, but I still maintain that XP was excellent… up to a point. That point, generally, was about a year of hard use and application installs – and failed uninstalls. The chaff left behind by badly-written apps (and Windows updates) is the biggest problem faced by XP as it slows the system down incredibly and without a lot of forethough and know-how can drag system performance right down.

It’s one reason I prefer Ubuntu right now. It seems to do a much better job of getting rid of this bumph, even going so far as to clearing the /tmp (temp) folder every reboot. In fact, it deletes files on-the-go as it determines you no longer need them, such as if you close the web page that YouTube video’s on. Windows, as far as XP – I can’t comment on Vista as I’ve avoided it deliberately – didn’t seem to understand the definition of the term “temporary”…

Anyway, in a couple of days I should have the equipment I need to mirror my existing drive, add a partition and install the Release Candidate. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks if I reckon it’s a worthy successor to XP.

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